The Redemption of the Tears of Eve
So the Akathist hymn hails Our Lady, as the Redemption of the tears of Eve. It is a common theme throughout the history of Christianity, beginning with the Annunciation story in Luke 1, which…
St Columba Antiochian Orthodox Church – Lafayette Colorado
A Western Rite Orthodox Church
Month: August 2020
St Joachim
‘The church will declare his generosity’ (Sirach 31, 11). The liturgy takes these words and applies them to St Joachim, a man whose generosity none of us can ever match. For he has given…
On Octaves
One of the features of our liturgy is the observance of octaves, an eight-day period during which we continue to celebrate certain major feasts, including the Assumption. The reason is that our joy cannot…
Thought for Assumption Day
One of the biggest problems people from an Evangelical background have when they explore Orthodoxy is with Mary. We can argue with them intellectually, but really Mary is not an intellectual proposition to be…
Love and Hate
In his Confessions, St Augustine speaks about being killed spiritually by certain scriptural passages which, when taken literally, seemed to teach perversity (5.24). Perhaps one such passage is 1 Samuel 15, which we read…
Diakonia
Today we celebrate the feast of St Lawrence, deacon and martyr, put to death for his faith at Rome in 258, by being roasted on a grid-iron. Deacons remind us of two things. First,…
AUGUST 1: Dirupisti Vincula Mea!
‘Thou hast broken my chains asunder’ (Psalm 113, 10). How well these words apply to the feast we celebrate today of St Peter in Chains, which recalls his escape from prison, as recorded in…